Movies have been made about this. Books have been written. Comic books have been drawn. Songs have been sung. I think it is all a little disgusting. To those he killed he certainly was winning.

I like to think in the other direction. Could Hitler have lost the war more conclusively if he had been actually trying to lose?

He had a lot of help, I must admit. A lot of people bungled their way through the war and some seemed to be trying to help their own side lose. In fact, it's hard to believe that anyone actually won. When it went into extra innings, I think both sides wanted to shake hands and agree to go home. Of course, it wasn't that simple. There was the little matter of revenge.

There are those who say that Hitler wanted revenge for the Versaille Treaty. He even took the French surrender in the same railroad car that the German surrender occurred in in 1918. If that was his reasoning, why didn't he learn from the mistakes of the German, French and Britich High Commands during the conflict in which he himself served for a few months? Because, for all his hate of diplomats and politicians, he loved the military. His heart and his pants swelled at the thought of a parade or a rally. He liked the uniforms, he liked the sound of boots, he liked the boom of the artillery. He liked the clank of the tank treads and the smell of diesel smoke on an autumn morning. He liked to ride around in a car and wave at everybody. He liked Sandhurst and St. Etienne. He liked Eton and Oxford. He liked Earl Grey, hot. He even liked a few young Englisch ladies.

His generals studied the American, Spanish and Englisch Civil Wars. They learned from the Barnum and Bailey Circus. They scrutinized the Boer Wars. They were vastly interested in the conflict in Mexico and the efforts of President Teddy Roosevelt to conquer Panama. They knew who Lawrence of Arabia was, and the Lone Ranger, too.

There were so many things that Hitler could have done to try to lose the war a bit less. He could have put the entire nation on a wartime footing. He could have spent less time playing with toys and building more planes and putting better boots on his men. He could have mobilized the females into the military and the factories as the Russians, Americans and Britich had. But Hitler was a Victorian. He had some idealized notions that no one could banish. On top of all that, he wasn't terribly sophisticated. He was a middle class brat who had trouble keeping a job, and fell in with some disgruntled artsy types. What made him a leader was his mouth and his willingness to associate with thugs. He made a good speech. If you were drunk, so much the better.

He started to lose the war at Dunkirk. He really hit the downslope when he tried to take Moscow. There was a point in 1944 when the allies could have just held their lines and sat back and waited and then the whole Reich would have collapsed into chaos without their moving another inch. But somebody wanted victory.

What a victory it was, too. Five minutes after WWII ended, WWIII began. We're still not sure who lost that one.